Keaton Akridge is 17 years old, and a senior at Geary. He plays football, basketball, and baseball, and he is in FFA. Akridge likes working on race cars and making money. He has previously battled with cancer, but overcame it and is now enjoying his senior year to the best of his abilities.
Keaton’s favorite sport is basketball. Although his season recently ended against Okeene, he enjoyed it. He was around it in third grade and decided he wanted to play it. He began in fifth grade when his mother, April, put him into the class for it. This season, they changed coaches yet again. However, this coach was “always there for us, no matter what we need. And he’s always pushing us as hard as we can go,” Akridge said. Playing his last game was really good for him. The crowd was the best part. It was one of the first times Keaton had seen an away crowd at a Geary game. “We had a whole student section there, it was loud, it was louder than the Mountain View game. It was crazy,” Akridge said. This season, he really wanted to “improve every game, always look for positives, and try to stay away from the negatives.” His reason for playing was originally his mom, because of how good of a player she was in high school.
Now, Keaton’s “why” for playing, is a past experience he had when he was a freshman, when he was diagnosed with cancer. After his diagnosis of Burkitt Lymphoma, Keaton couldn’t participate in much, so he looked forward to playing basketball. Coach Chase Evans was really there for him during this time, always checking up on him and giving him whatever he needed. Before the first football game his freshman year, Akridge experienced a lot of stomach pain for days, which was later found out to be cancer masses and internal bleeding. He then went through about six months of chemo. Watching everyone around him struggle was one of the hardest parts about it. His mom and dad stressed about him and their recent foster kids they received a day before his diagnosis. His grandpa also had cancer at the time Keaton did. “The hardest part of my chemo was watching my grandfather lose his battle with me,” Akridge said. Although this was a hard time for him, he now uses his experiences to push him forward through whatever life throws at him. “I can always look back at it and realize … don’t take advantage of what you have now because it can always be worse,” he said.
After Keaton graduates, he plans to get his Commercial Drivers License and start to make money for himself, and eventually be a volunteer firefighter and pursue one of his passions in life: helping people. “I always try to make people laugh, try to always be there for people,” he said. He now looks forward to baseball, where he plays catcher. He wants to continue being the best he can be in sports and in life.
Keaton Akridge, 17
Grade-Senior April and Tim Akridge (parents), Emily and Tommy Akridge (siblings)
Activities-FFA, Football, Basketball, Baseball
Hobbies-Working, working on racecars